Guest Column: Next amnesty push concealed by health care debate

A new 1,000-page immigration bill is already in the pipeline—no talk about capitalism, working hard, having a sponsor, etc. This is what the Ted Kennedy clique always wanted—open borders, all people from all countries welcomed to come here for a FREE piece of the American Pie—all courtesy of taxpayers.

Remember that Barack Obama campaigned with the mantra,
Undocumented workers should nothave to live as second-class citizens.

Is there a single Democrat who doesn’t want to lay out the red carpet for illegals? If there are any, they should let the world know—oh, wait, they’ll be crucified by their own party, just as peace-loving Muslims are afraid to decry the violence, or union members are fearful to oppose their leadership.

It begins with blanket amnesty for those who are here illegally, followed by a call for massive increases in family- and-employment-based immigration. The bill is focused entirely on meeting the demands of would-be immigrants. But a key Senate supporter of amnesty, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), insisted that immigration legislation would have to wait until Congress completes work on the health care bill. In actuality, 30 million illegals would have to be removed before we can realize the true costs of our health care.

Gutierrez’s proposal includes the AgJOBS amnesty for millions of illegal alien agricultural workers. It purports to
reform

the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program to allow employers easier access to cheap foreign labor. Last spring, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that 8 million illegal foreign workers held U.S. jobs at that time, but only 4 percent of them were in agriculture.

Since that report, many illegal aliens’ jobs have been eliminated, but they still hold at least 7 million construction, service, manufacturing and transportation jobs. Contrary to some politicians’ rhetoric, those jobs are indeed being sought by unemployed Americans. Congress and this administration know that when an illegal foreign worker leaves a job, an unemployed American gets to go back to work, but they don’t care!

It’s no surprise that Gutierrez is a lead proponent, given his poor voting record on chain immigration, border security, internal enforcement of immigration laws, anchor baby citizenship, reducing unnecessary foreign worker visas, and reducing fraud among asylum-seekers and a multitude of faith-based organizations that bring refugees here. Instead of being supported by those do-gooders, as the law has always required, refugees are now assigned Social Security numbers, then dumped into the various states’ welfare programs!

The bill also includes the DREAM Act, granting amnesty to illegal aliens who entered the country as children, and have met certain minimal educational requirements. It further codifies subsidizing in-state tuition for them. If anyone is paying attention, the evidence is clear from the outlines presented by the authors of this bill that elected officials are ignoring the interests ofAmerican citizens!

E.J. Pagel is a Minuteman and the media secretary for the Rockford Area Libertarians.